SKI JUMPING. Thomas Morgenstern is simply outstanding. After he won the opening event of the Poland-Tour in Wisla, the Austrian World Champion also won the second competition in Szczyrk. And this time the Austrians could even celebrate a double victory, because Gregor Schlierenzauer finished second.

Podium at Summer Grand Prix Szczyrk (POL), photo © fisskijumping.com

Morgenstern clearly captured the victory with 268.0 points ahead of his teammate Schlierenzauer (261.4 points). To the joy of the Polish fans, local hero Kamil Stoch came in third with a great jump on 103.5 m in the final round. The hill record at the Skalite-Hill is still held by Klemens Muranka with 107 m, but the spectators high-class competition with a well-deserved winner.

Robert Kranjec from Slovenia, who already jumped strong in Wisla on Sunday, came in fourth. Japanese Taku Takeuchi and young Bulgarian Vladimir Zografski shared the fifth place.

Norwegians with crape

The Norwegians were wearing crapes because former head coach Ludvik Zajc died on Monday. The Slovene was working as a coach in Norway from 1998 to 2002 and lived there until his death. Best of the team of the new head coach Alexander Stoeckl was Tom Hilde as seventh, Andreas Stjernen showed a good performance and will be happy with his 13th place.

Germans with good team performance

The Germans achieved a very good team result with four jumpers in the Top 20. Their best was Severin Freund (8th), close ahead of Richard Freitag (9th) and Stephan Hocke (14th). Martin Schmitt finished 17th. Freund and Freitag are the best Germans this summer so far, both were already in the Top 10 in Wisla.

Besides Takeuchi, also 20-year-old youngster Junshiro Kobayashi landed in the Top 10 for the Japanese, who were very strong also last summer.

Morgenstern with big lead

Pavel Karelin, who surprised as second at the opener in Wisla, confirmed his good shape with the 11th place this evening. Best Czech was Lukas Hlava as 19th.

After his two victories Thomas Morgenstern has a big lead in the Summer Grand Prix overall ranking ahead of Schlierenzauer. The Austrians are the dominating team also in summer 2011, even if the top 2 are well ahead of the rest of their team. Wolfgang Loitzl was the third best Austrian on Wednesday as 15th, Martin Koch was 21st.

FISskijumping.com
20.07.2011 18:55

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